Orlando, Fla. – College students and their families will pay higher interest rates on their school loans if Congress approves a deficit-reduction bill that contains the largest cuts in history to the federal student loan program.

The bill would immediately raise the interest rates charged to students by 1.5 percentage points – an increase of roughly 28 percent – and mandate a smaller boost in a loan program used by parents.

However, experts say the majority of the cuts will affect private lenders who get government subsidies, and not families struggling to pay for college.

“In an ideal world, I don’t think that anyone who wants greater support for higher education would say, ‘This is the bill,”‘ said Jim Boyle, president of College Parents of America, a parents-advocacy group based in Washington. “But it’s a lot better than it could have been.”

The Senate barely passed the bill Wednesday with a vote of 51-50.

The measure, which slashes almost $13 billion from the federal loan program, is awaiting approval by the House of Representatives.

The loan-program cuts constitute about a third of nearly $40 million in federal-deficit reductions the bill claims to achieve, a fact that disappoints some who hoped the savings would be put back into education.

One of the most significant changes in the bill is switching interest rates from variable to fixed, a measure that would result in higher interest next year.

Currently, interest on federal student loans, often called Stafford loans, varies each year and is capped at 8.25 percent. Borrowers pay 5.3 percent this year. Under the proposed legislation, the rate would be fixed at 6.8 percent.

Parents who take advantage of the federal Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students have a variable interest rate that is capped at 9 percent. This year’s 6 percent rate had been set to move to 7.9 percent in July. Under the new proposal, Congress would fix the rate at 8.5 percent.